


I bought a new game yestersday

by ShadowedWings



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: X & Y | Pokemon X & Y Versions
Genre: Don’t copy to another site, Existential Angst, Existentialism, Maybe - Freeform, Poetry, a bit melancholy i suppose, and it made me want to record my feelings on it, i swear i'll write something happier than bittersweet one of these days, idk - Freeform, second-hand things, there was still an existing file, this is literally just me writing about a game i got yesterday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-24 19:57:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20020162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowedWings/pseuds/ShadowedWings
Summary: A poem I wrote after finding there was still an existing file on a game cartridge I recently acquired. A farewell to the last person who played it and left their mark, in a sense, before I delete it to start my own playthrough with a new character.





	I bought a new game yestersday

Well, I say “new”  
New to me, anyway, I hadn’t played it before  
I found it, half price from the normal, in an antiques mall  
Where I also acquired an image of the Madonna,   
And those with me bought teacups and dishes  
Picked from among thousands of other items  
The game cartridge has no case, only  
A price tag on a string taped to it.

The game is _Pokemon Y_  
One I’ve wanted to play since I played _X_  
And absolutely loved it, my first ever _Pokemon_ game  
But I’m a bit surprised when I put it in turn it on, and  
There’s still a file  
Not terribly surprised, I don’t think I would delete mine  
If I happened to sell any of them  
But I still wasn’t expecting it.

The person who had this before me played  
As a girl named Tamara  
With long platinum blonde hair and  
Blue blue eyes (like how I started)  
Her starter was Fennekin  
And Calem’s was Froakie  
And Shauna’s was Chespin  
(just like me).

None of their pokemon have nicknames  
(did they give them nicknames and then,  
knowing they would sell the game, erase them?)  
They had just recently beaten the Elite Four  
(they hadn’t even opened the PC since,   
new wallpapers unremarked)  
They stood in front of the Pokemon Daycare Centre  
(two pokemon still there, egg unreceived).

They never made a Trainer PR Video  
Never even set foot in the studio the whole time they played  
They hadn’t changed their hair   
The stylist didn’t recognize them  
Only purchased three hats, four shirts  
Four bottoms (three skirts) and one dress  
Some socks, some shoes, a purse  
I think they liked the colour purple.

Their pokedex had seen three hundred sixty (360) pokemon  
Only one hundred fifty-five (155) of them are fully registered  
Their main team is Delphox (level 83), Emolga (level 82),  
Blastoise (level 84), Aerodactyl (level 81),  
Lucario (level 83), and Yvetal (level 85)  
But I think that used to include  
Malamar (level 64), and Doublade (level 54)  
It makes me wonder which pokemon were chosen over them, and why.

I wonder who this person is (was?)  
Did they know they weren’t going to keep their game?  
Had they meant to come back to it?  
Were they the one who chose to sell it?  
Was it someone else, going through a collection given to them, not keeping doubles?  
Maybe they were someone who vanished, picked up and left  
Or   
Maybe it was just a case of that their 3DS broke and they didn’t get another.

Would they mind, knowing I’m going to delete their file?  
This mystery person I’ll never know  
I’ll save some of their pokemon, try to send them to my file or  
Trade them away to others  
There’s some items I’ll send with the pokemon  
Most I won’t   
I don’t know if I’ll save the Delphox  
Or let it disappear with Tamara, the one who raised it.

I know we talk about ghosts  
On Facebook, and YouTube, and Tumblr, and Twitter  
Memories and accounts of people who don’t   
Exist anymore, beyond other’s recollection of them  
But what about the ghosts in old second hand games  
Forgotten until the next person picks them up  
And turns them on?  
Do they take the same space, discoverable by people who never knew them, who will never know the flesh and blood person behind the character?

But I guess what I mean by all this is  
Goodbye, person who played as Tamara  
Who never opened Pokemon Amie or Super Training to play with their pokemon  
Who seemed to have only kept this until they could beat the Elite Four  
Who had a team they must have cared about, built of pokemon who brought them joy  
Who only ever used great balls, except for when they captured Yvetal, where they used a quick ball  
Who may have meant to come back to their game with Tamara  
Who may have decided they were finished with it  
Who exists, or existed, as a person on this world  
I hope you are happy, wherever, whoever you are  
Thank you for the game.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if I'll keep this up, but I wanted to give words to my emotions. Perhaps it was interesting to read, and I do hope so, at least a little, but for now it has served its purpose.
> 
> That said, it makes me curious if one day I'll be this for someone else- some random entity who can only be known through the choices that I made in the game file they open to on a second hand cartridge, or console; only able to be learned about until that file is deleted, and any trace of me left behind is erased.


End file.
